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Posted November 12, 2012 by Zeth in News
 
 

Mass Effect 4 – new engine but true to core values

Mass Effect 4 logo
Mass Effect 4 logo

Mass Effect 4 might be the last thing you though you’d ever hear.  After Bioware dropped the curtain on Shepherd’s exploits earlier this year we all thought it was over… not, not so much.

Regardless of your personal baggage with the ending of Mass Effect 3, one thing is for certain, Mass Effect was one of the stand-out franchises of this generation.  With the announcement of Mass Effct 4 many have been concerned with the path the game will take.  After all many of the core team that put these three titles together are now no longer with the company.

In steps Bioware’s Yanick Roy, new studio director at Bioware’s Montreal site.  In his blog post he has laid out a few clear and precise thoughts on the franchise and the path it will take.

“There is really not much I can tell you about the game right now, except that it will be built with the amazing technology of Frostbite acts as foundation, enhanced by many of the systems the Dragon Age III team has Already Spent a lot of time building.  The other thing I can tell you Is that, while it will be very respectful of the heritage built over the course of the first three games, with the original trilogy now concluded and the switch over to a new engine, we are exploring new directions, both gameplay and story on the fronts.  You can still expect the pillars for the deductible is known to be fully intact though, including diverse alien races, a huge galaxy to explore, and of course rich, cinematic storytelling.”

Building the game using Dice’s Frostbite technology is a smart move and one that we will see taken throughout EA as a whole – why buy an engine in when you can just use the one you have internally?

Playing it all very close to the chest at the moment, this is a title that will be gacing the Next Generation of consoles (and PCs no doubt).  If I had to predict a release window I’d go with 2014.  If we see anything at E3 2013 then it’ll be April/May 2014 if not it’ll be holiday season window 2014.  Either way it looks like Mass Effect 4 may finally get the hardware it deserves to expand on those earlier promises.  Current thinking?  4-4-14 sound nice!

Mass Effect trilogy package has recently launched on the PC and Xbox 360 with the PS3 package being readied as soon as the team MAKE Mass Effect 1.


Zeth

 
Zeth is our EU ninja and Editor in Chief. He's been writing about video games since 2008 when he started on BrutalGamer. He's pretty old and has been a gamer since he played Space Invaders as a young boy in the 80's. His genre tastes lean towards platformers, point-and-click adventure, action-adventure and shooters but he'll turn his hand to anything.